ARBITRAGE
Director : Nicholas Jarecki
Year : 2013
Genre : Thriller
Rating : ****1/2
Engulfing us in a world of betrayal, disloyalty and sleaze, 'Arbitrage' is a taut adrenaline fuelled thriller by Nicholas Jarecki that manages to intrigue, disgust and involve in equal measure. Featuring a barn storming performance by Richard Gere and featuring a very strong supporting cast which includes Susan Sarandon and Tim Roth, the film is a superbly acted piece of tense psychological drama that perfectly portrays the evil and tyrannical lust for money. Combining the cinematographical elements of both film noir and real life drama, 'Arbitrage' is a stylish and extremely entertaining work that really deserves more recognition. Snubbed at both the Academy Awards and the Golden Globes, 'Arbitrage' failed to gain any major publicity and was a relative failure at the box office; but hopefully with it's recent DVD release, the film will gather the respectability and the recognition it truly deserves.
On the surface, Robert Miller (Gere) is the idealised version of the successful businessman. He is in a perfectly happy relationship with his beautiful wife (Sarandon), is adored and admired by his children and owns a multi million dollar business with his daughter. But beneath the cracks of his perfect exterior, Miller hides a cyclone of betrayal, secrecy and selfishness. In truth, he is engaging in an illicit affair with a young artist client and has cooked the books of his business so that he can cover a huge investment loss and avoid being incarcerated for major fraud. But when a tragic accident changes the scheme of his seemingly blissful existence, he is trapped by both his lies and his betrayal and soon the FBI is chasing him down. Willing to betray his friends and family, Miller will stop at nothing to clear his name and run away scot free; but will his inequities and selfishness become his final undoing?
Nicholas Jarecki is a relative newcomer to directing but based on the strength of 'Arbitrage', I think we may see a lot more of his work in the future. His use of lighting and camera work is fantastic and with a simple zoom or a pan away, he is able to express a mood and an emotion with very little need for dialogue or non diegetic music. In many ways, 'Arbitrage' owes a debt to such movies as 'Wall Street' and to a lesser extent 'Margin Call' as both movies showed us in great detail the necessity of wealth and the lengths some people will go to earn money. While not as wordy as 'Margin Call', 'Arbitrage' does a very good job of placing us in the world of Robert Miller and the crimes and betrayals he commits to get what he wants. With a tight screenplay and a fantastic visual eye, Jarecki is able to the most out of Gere's dynamic performance and the amazing vistas of Manhattan in which it is set.
Richard Gere gives one of the best performances of his career in 'Arbitrage' and is able to hold the camera and our attention with very little body language or dialogue. Willing to destroy the lives of others to get what he wants, Robert Miller is a conniving, self centred egotist who manages to worm his way around anyone with a charming smile and a chequebook. Hiding his true intentions with a façade of generosity, Miller sets up a number of charities and organisations making him a local hero. I can't help but feel that are many people who are like this in the world today, who disguise their morals with a blanket of false optimism and Gere perfectly encapsulates both the admirable and loathsome side to the extremely wealthy. Having to run a gamut of a huge range of emotions, Gere gives the best performance he has given in a decade and I hope that 'Arbitrage' will earn him more tasty roles in the future.
As mentioned earlier, the supporting cast do a phenomenal job of portraying those caught up in the whirlwind of Robert Miller's bloated ego and each actor is given a chance to really prove their acting chops. It is very rare to see a movie like this which shows the wrongdoings of a person but also show the effect the lies has one his/her nearest and dearest. 'Arbitrage' does this fantastically well and places us right in the centre of each individual characters moral conundrum. Susan Sarandon is brilliant as Miller's oblivious wife who manages to keep her sanity and life in check with a deep love for her children and friends. Tim Roth is brilliant as always as the FBI officer who is trying to trap Miller at his own games and is also willing to go to extreme lengths to get what he wants and Nate Parker is brilliantly sympathetic as an innocent man caught up in the crimes that Miller has committed. As a whole, the entire cast of 'Arbitrage' work fantastically well together and manage to play each of their respective archetypes with grace and amazing realism. However, the star of the show is Richard Gere and for every minute he is on screen, magic happens.
Not just a film about business, a film about a murder or a film about an affair, 'Arbitrage' is a brilliant mix of a number of elements which combine to create a very good story about the life of an incredibly selfish man. As a piece of cinema, 'Arbitrage' is a stylish, beautifully shot and evocative work that will surely mean bigger things for it's director in the future. As a character study, 'Arbitrage' seems strangely familiar and with stories of fraud, tax evasion and bloated bankers wages populating our news at the moment, the movie echoes the zeitgeists and economic problems facing our world today.
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